The Jews and the Law

¹⁷ Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;^{(A) 18} if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; ¹⁹ if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— ²¹ you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?^{(B) 22} You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?^{(C) 23} You who boast in the law,^(D) do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

²⁸ Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.^{(A) 29} How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God^(B) underfoot,^(C) who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant^(D) that sanctified them,^(E) and who has insulted the Spirit^(F) of grace?^(G)

Causing to Stumble

⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.^(A)

¹³ Therefore let us stop passing judgment^(A) on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.^{(B) 14} I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself.^(C) But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.^{(D) 15} If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love.^(E) Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.^(F)

⁹ Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block^(A) to the weak.^{(B) 10} For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?^{(C) 11} So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed^(D) by your knowledge. ¹² When you sin against them^(E) in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.^(F)